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Ex-VW CEO Winterkorn Denies Knowledge of Diesel Cheating

Former Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn tells a German parliamentary panel he didn’t know the company was rigging diesels with software to cheat emission standards until August 2015, a month before he resigned over the scandal.
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Former Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn tells a German parliamentary panel he didn’t know the company was rigging diesels with software to cheat emission standards until August 2015, a month before he resigned over the scandal.

Winterkorn, an engineer by training and an infamous stickler for detail, says he knows little about software and wasn’t directly involved in emission regulatory matters. He reiterates to the committee he is as baffled and angry as anyone about how the deception occurred.

“It’s incomprehensible why I wasn’t informed early and clearly,” he declares. An investigation into how much senior managers knew, and when, continues. VW said in a court filing last year that Winterkorn received two memos about discrepancies in U.S. emission tests in 2014 and attended a meeting a year later that referenced the issue.

VW has so far agreed to spend more than €20 billion ($21 billion) on fines and restitution for 11 million heater diesel-powered vehicles sold worldwide.

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